geef24

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I am an all-grain brewer but I still bottle to be able to give beer away to neighbors and friends at work. Recently I brewed a Scottish 80 and a Northern Brown ale, both of which were very malty out of secondary. I had aged the Scottish 4 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in secondary at about 60 degrees. I bottled my beer and within two weeks that rich maltiness had disappeared. In addition the very slight smokiness in the Scottish was also gone. I will say I left it at about 68 to 70 degrees to carbonate, wondering if the yeast may have been the culprit once the temp was raised.

I was left with an "okay" beer. If I were judging it for a contest I would say it went from a score of 40 to a score of 25-30.

Mainly I am wondering how it could age that long in secondary and not lose a thing, but after bottling it diminishes.

Could it be a mild infection in the beer that is difficult to perceive? Bottling technique? Is carbonation to blame? Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks!

robcj

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Could it be oxidization during your transfer or bottling process?

Have you successfully brewed highly malty beers before? If not, it could be water chemistry, particularly your chloride level.

tre9er

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I could be way off base here but two things I would try are bottling sooner and lowering the primer. I'm finding as I drink more, better beer that there are a number of beers that just don't taste right with bright, sparkling bubbles.

On the fermentation period, I guess I feel like the best way to preserve a flavor is to take it off the yeast/trub as soon as it's fermented, unless it's supposed to mellow out or lager. Again, this is sort of my opinion and may be off-base.

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afr0byte

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I also find that if a beer is too cold it's harder for me to taste the malt. So, you might trying letting the beer warm up more.

southerngroove

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Bottle conditioning and carbonation will change the taste of the beer, some seem to change more than others. Used to make a Scottish that did the same thing, way more smoke flavor in the keg as opposed to the bottle.

sarsnik

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Two guesses:

I think gusher infections consumer some larger sugars that attribute malty backdrops. Perhaps its a very mild infection as you suggested.

Also, you might be overcarbing. Effervescence cuts through some of the Scottish thickness. Have you left it out for a while and tried it? Does the malt come back?

geef24

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I entered it in a contest this weekend and it got a 30. My thought and the perception of the judges is that I may have had a mild phenolic infection just starting to show up. My bottle cleaning regimen has been lacking lately so going back to my old, extended method.

Definitely not overcarbing. I used 3.2 oz of corn sugar for 5 gallons.

I believe it is the loss of residual sugars from the infecting source.

Lastly I used a 4 week fermentation time because in Designing Great Beers it said that primary could take 3 weeks at 55 -60 degrees . I gave it an extra week mainly because the weekend I planned to do it was taken up with activities, so I gave it and extra week.

Thanks all for your replies.